It seems that Syrian President Bashar Assad's 11-year old son has been talking smack, according to The New York Times's Liam Stack.

Hafez Assad took to Facebook to mock the U.S. military while also beefing up Syria's loyalist forces. "I want them to attack sooooo much," wrote Hafez, "because I want them to make the huge mistake of starting something they don't know then end of it."

Something weird is happening in the Golan Heights these days. Yesterday, Syrian rebels captured twenty-one Filipino soldiers that were part of the UNDOF mission that monitors the border between Syria and Israel.

Put aside any questions that you might have about the wisdom of the rebels' strategy for a moment, because there are a few related events that are either strange coincidences a heavy dose of irony, or something else entirely.

Last Friday, Croatia announced that it was withdrawing its 100 soldiers from the Golan Heights following media reports that they were working with Saudi Arabia to supply weapons to the Syrian resistance. According to the New York Times, Saudi Arabia was purchasing surplus infantry weapons that were used in Yugoslavia's wars of succession from Croatia and funneling them to the rebels. Croatia's foreign ministry denied the reports, but then quit the peacekeeping mission because of claims that they were no longer safe.

This marks a new sophistication in the effort by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar to supply the rebels clandestinely. It also comes with a heavy dose of irony. After all, Croats and Serbs accused Saudi Arabia of supplying their Bosniak rivals with weapons during the Bosnian Civil War. Now, Croatia is working with the Saudis to supply the Syrian rebels with the same weapons. That's ironic.

How is all of this related? Why would a rebel group attack a UN outpost when they desperately need international support and when the Golan Heights have little strategic value in the civil war? Maybe Croatia's hasty withdrawal, yesterday's attack on the UNDOF, and arms pipeline are connected, maybe they're not. -DBM

When I was young, I remember watching a movie called Escape to Victory in which Rocky, Pelé, and Michael Caine played a football match against the Nazis. Yes, the description sounds great, and the whole thing ended with a Great Escape-style breakout.

Like other war movies, this one bastardized a true story, made all the characters American or English, and had a happy ending. The story Escape to Victory was based on would have made for a better movie. In 1942, after the Nazis invaded and occupied Ukraine, players from the disbanded teams FC Dynamo Kiev and Lokomotiv Kiev were noticed playing on the weekends by German soldiers and were invited to play a series of matches against teams of German and Hungarian soldiers. The Ukrainians destroyed their opponents in every match, embarrassing the Germans enough that the Gestapo rounded up several of their players and sent them to labor camps, where several were put to death. The Soviets tweaked the story to make it more dramatic, portraying a climatic “Death Match” in which all of the Ukrainian players were immediately arrested following a match and soon after executed.

One famous football during wartime story that is used to illustrate the possibilities of international cooperation is that of the WW I Christmas Truce of 1914. As the story goes, British and German troops, facing each other in trenches with little action since the early fall, started singing Christmas carols to each other as the holiday approached. And then on Christmas Day, soldiers came out of their trenches, supposedly at various points along the long front, and engaged in gift-giving and impromptu football matches.

Below is a historical re-enactment of the Christmas Truce football match, courtesy of British comics Hale & Pace.

This last story doesn’t take place during wartime, but in North Korea, which is still technically at war with South Korea, so I guess it counts. During the last World Cup in South Africa, the late Great Leader Kim Jong Il famously became so incensed at his team’s poor performance in the tournament that he subjected the team upon their return to a public shaming. The coach received worse – he was expelled from the sport and sent to work on a building development.